Thanks to the mobilisation of progressives and Greens, the threat of the Partido Popular (affiliated to the European People's Party) forming a government with the far-right party Vox was averted in the Spanish elections on 24 July. This is also very good news at European level.
The leader of the Partido Popular (PP), Alberto Núñez Feijóo, wanted to oust the progressive Sanchez government. Feijóo did not rule out governing with the Francoist and far-right party Vox, as the PP already does in the regional governments of Castilla y León, Valencia and Extremadura. Thanks to the mobilisation of the Spanish people, a far-right Spanish government is not possible, as the PP and Vox do not have a majority in parliament.
Mélanie Vogel and Thomas Waitz, Co-Chairs of the European Green Party, congratulate Sumar and Yolanda Diaz: “Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez (PSOE), and Yolanda Diaz (Sumar), second Vice-prime Minister of the government, have been rewarded by the Spanish people for the last 3,5 years of progressive government. In fact, the biggest loser on election night was an opposition party, the far-right Vox, which lost 19 seats. On the other side, Sumar, the alliance of the Greens and Progressives, received the votes of 3,014,006 Spaniards, giving it 31 seats and making it the fourth political force in Spain, a great political success".
Consequences on the European level
The European Green Party (EGP) warned last week that a far-right Spanish government could have strengthened the bloc of governments opposed to climate action and social rights in the European Council. Spain saying 'no' to a conservative and extreme right government is particularly good news at European level, especially at a time when constructive climate and social measures are needed. The Spanish election shows that the alliance of the right and the far right can be defeated by progressive, Green and feminist alternatives, both in Spain and across Europe. Despite the lies and misinformation of the conservatives and the far right, in the last two major European events, the vote on the Nature Restoration Law and the Spanish campaign, the alliance of the worst failed.
"Yolanda Diaz said in her victory speech that there were many people in Spain who were worried, and that they would sleep better now that democracy had won. This is true for Spain, but also for Europe. This news shows that a progressive vision can trump a regressive one and that the unholy alliance between right-wing parties and the far right can and will be defeated - and the European Greens are determined to show this again in the 2024 EU elections," Vogel and Waitz conclude.
